Over the last few months -- Baptist pastors have stood in their pulpit, admonishing their congregations, instilling fear in their communities, and threatening violence, death, hell and damnation to the entire LGBT community, because they hold narrow and bigoted views about a group of people they don’t know.

The President announced that he supports marriage equality, which is an issue that’s a state issue - not a federal issue, and all hell broke loose among evangelicals.

A Kansas pastor said the government should kill LGBT people. A Maryland pastor said kill them all. A North Carolina pastor said lock us up in concentration camps so we could all die off. Another North Carolina pastor advocated violence, and said parents should beat the gay out of their LGBT kids. A Mississippi state legislator and Baptist pastor posted on Facebook that marriage equality is “horrific social policy,” and cited Leviticus 20:13, which calls for putting LGBT people to death. The president of the Southern Baptist Convention said AIDS and STD’s are God’s way to pay people back for sexual immorality.

These remarks were all made in response to marriage equality. Marriage equality is a political issue, and a civil rights issue. Why is it a church issue? If churches wade into politics, isn’t it the law, and fair that they start paying taxes to the federal government?

Many of these pastors derive income from officiating at church weddings. Yet no one requires a pastor to officiate at a wedding they aren’t comfortable with, and we wouldn’t want them poisoning our weddings regardless, so why are they up in arms?

I have to state the obvious here - and remind everyone that marriage is a “civil” institution. Before a couple gets married, they go to City Hall and apply for a marriage license. After they complete the application, and blood tests, they are issued a license to marry.

A city or town issues a marriage license, NOT the church. All the rights and benefits that marriage confers on a couple come from the state and federal government, NOT from the church. There is a fee paid to get the license, and the fee goes to the local government, NOT the church. Marriage is a civil procedure, recognized and validated by laws passed in state legislatures, NOT laws in the Bible, or your local church.

We have a very distinct separation of church and state in our country today, because of the religious zealots, and bigots, who repressed those members of society who had differing beliefs in 17th century England. How different are today’s Christian purveyors of bigotry, murder and mayhem different from those in the 1600’s? They aren’t very different, and that’s why most people reject the extremists. The majority of our country has evolved, and expressed support for marriage equality - just like our President.

These Christian extremists, aka the evangelical movement, or the Republican party, are using tactics that are synonymous with bullies and terrorists. A terrorist uses terror to further their political beliefs. What are these church leaders doing? They are using verbal terror to instill fear in our community, and our country, to try to advance their bigoted, antiquated and incorrect interpretation of scripture. Simply put, they are Christian terrorists.

When these gay bashing terrorists call on God to punish homosexuals for their sins, they believe that the Bible gives them license to call for our deaths, while our younger LGBTQ brothers and sisters hear these same words - and think the Bible is telling them to kill themselves. Their rhetoric is disgusting, immoral and unconscionable - and this conduct befits a false prophet, not a Christian.

These Christian gay bashing terrorists haven’t exhibited one iota of love for their LGBT family members, friends or neighbors - which is in direct violation of scripture.

When these terrorists masquerading as preachers ensure that their churches pay taxes to the federal government for engaging in political activities, maybe they can have a seat at the table to have a serious debate. Until that happens, these terrorists will remain an embarrassment to society, an embarrassment to the GOP, and an embarrassment to Christianity.